Various entertainment and developmental devices for children have long been known. For a great number of years, for example, drawing and coloring books have provided countless hours of entertainment for children. It is further recognized by professionals among the various fields studying early childhood education and development, that drawing and coloring provide excellent vehicles for early childhood development.
To more specifically describe the developmental process, at birth, infants are unable to distinguish colors, recognizing only black and white. As they grow, vision develops to distinguish primary colors. That is, children will distinguish red from blue, long before recognizing subtle distinctions such as red from crimson or scarlet. As childrens' sense of vision matures to differentiate between various colors, they have an ever increasing desire for self-expression through coloring. Indeed, young children will tend to select specific colors depending upon the particular mood that they are experiencing at the time. As children further mature, drawing and coloring activities help to develop or enhance fine motor skills, as demonstrated by refining particular shapes through repeated drawings on blank pages, or by learning to color within the borders of preprinted patterns.
It can be appreciated that the more time children spend drawing or coloring, the faster their fine motor skills will develop. While there exists an innate desire among children to engage in drawing and coloring activities, their stamina to sustain any such single activity is generally short term. Encouraging children to repeatedly engage in drawing or coloring activities facilitates the development of their fine motor skills, as well as color identification and recognition ability.
One way of effectively encouraging children to engage in or maintain certain activities is by praising their efforts or otherwise providing positive reinforcement. While adult support and encouragement of childhood developmental activities provides a strong motivation for children to continue or repeat such activities, a more desirable means of encouragement would be a means where constant adult supervision is not required, thereby enabling children to enjoy the sense of satisfaction in coloring or creating a drawing independent of adult direction.
Since the visual stimulation that is innately achieved from drawing or coloring provides effective motivation for children to temporarily engage in these activities, it is recognized that stimulating other sensory perceptions in response to such drawing or coloring activities further encourages children to continue and repeat these activities.
More particularly, it is known that young children naturally respond to various audible stimuli in much the same fashion as visual stimuli. For example, infants make various and repeated "clucking" or other noises with their mouths because of the congenital fascination in discovering the power or ability to create such sounds. As children grow this intrinsic fascination is displayed in other ways, such as drumming on various objects with various utensils to create a wide variety of sounds.
It is, therefore, realized that if this intrinsic auditory fascination can be effectively utilized in connection with a drawing and coloring device, children will be more thoroughly entertained. As a result, children will spend more time coloring or drawing with such a device, not only providing effective entertainment, but also facilitating development of fine motor skills, as well as the ability to identify and recognize various colors.